This fretboard exercise for bass is one of my favorites. Not only will it help you master your entire fretboard and help you break out of playing the same shapes you always play, but it’s more like a game than an exercise which makes it a bunch of fun. It’s an exercise I learned from […]
Chord Symbols For Bass 3/3: 4-Note Chords
If you’re a bass player and you know how to find the roots of chords, you can be functional. If you know how to find your roots, thirds and fifths of all your chords, you can be professional. If you know how to find your roots, thirds, fifths and sevenths of all your chords, PLUS […]
Chord Symbols For Bass (2/3): Beyond Roots
Once you know how to find the roots of chords, you can be pretty dangerous – maybe even make it through an entire gig on bass! But if you really want to start making cool bass lines, riffs, fills and licks, then you’re going to need to get beyond using just the root. After all, […]
How To Read Chord Symbols For Bass (1/3): The ‘Bassics’
You get a chord chart or lyric sheet put in front of you with a bunch of chord symbols over it, but what the hell are you supposed to play? Especially if you’ve never come across some of the symbols before. This is basically what happened to me first time I saw a ‘real’ jazz […]
How To Craft Bass Lines For Melodies
Back when I was in high school and starting to learn bass I had a guitarist friend who LOVED writing melodies and riffs for songs. The ideas just seemed to flow out of him, but nothing ever seemed to get finished. Every once in a while, he’d show me the songs and melodies he’d started […]
Muting Strings On Bass: A Bulletproof Method
Muting strings on bass: it’s a classic beginner problem, and even something that bassists with more experience struggle with. Here’s how it usually happens: You learn a few songs – and you might even sound pretty good – but there’s this ‘ringing’ that won’t seem to go away. Strings seem to have a mind of […]
